After the End Part 1
by nowayjose
Summary: Years later, Lena faces a crisis. Will the Sisterhood save her? Will she marry Paul?
1. Chapter 1

Lena, for the first time in her life, had impulsively spent a lot of money. She had made her purchase, and about four hours later she called Tibby, Carmen, and Bee of her plans. And then, she left.

It was the first time she had done this. It was like a growth spurt, she assumed. It would go away in a little bit. That didn't explain her excitement as she boarded the plane. It didn't explain why she didn't feel guilty. It didn't explain why she hadn't told Paul her plans.

She didn't pack much, just some pretty skirts and tops. She didn't want to take _here_ to _there_. That would mean Lena would be going. She didn't feel like Lena.

The world was rushing past her so quickly, she realized. The moon was shining as she hurried up the path. And then she was at her grandmother's front door, and her grandmother was showing her the same room, untouched since her family was here for Bapi's funeral. Lena was wearing his shoes, and felt like she had walked into his memory.

They had never spoken. She knew what she would have said now.

"Bapi," Lena's words felt inappropriate, like they were harsh and grating, destroying the simple melody of silence.

"Bapi, I have come back. Oh Bapi, I don't know what to say. You would understand if you were here, I think. You would know why I came. I don't know what to do, Bapi."

Lena sat down on the edge of the bed. She knew her grandmother would not call her mother, not after that fight they had last year over Effie.

She felt exhausted. Had she ever been this tired before? All of the determination that had boiled up in her to get to this point was seeping away, leaving her empty.

Tibby, come here and hold me. Carma, come here and understand me. Bee, come here and help me do something.

It was so hot. She pulled off her khakis and her top.

It was Greece, damnit. She liked how that sounded in her head. Like she was tough or something.

If the Pants had been with her, she would have worn them. Not for luck, but to feel that reassurance that she was loved, that the Pants would keep her safe and not lead her astray. Instead she wore a white skirt and a pink top.

She managed to stumble out of the window (when had she become so inflexible?) and managed to get down to the ground. And with that, she hurried to the Grove.

She turned the diamond on her ring so that it faced her, not out.


	2. Chapter 2

Lena had hoped, in the back of her mind, that he would be here. She had the romantic idea that he might have felt her presence here in Oia. He would have hurried up to the rock, she could have looked at him, and she could have known.

Lena had been absolutely sure of two things throughout her life. The first was the Septembers. The second was that Kostos had loved her. She felt sure of Paul, but in a different way.

Paul was sweet. He was dependable, reliable, and handsome. He let her be silent. He had never said a word about how pretty she was, except for one time they went somewhere dressy.

But Paul was safe. Paul was who everyone expected little Lena to marry. Paul did nothing for Lena. She could be the same person she always was.

So why had she said yes?

"_Hurry, Lenny," Carmen called up the stairs. _

"_I'm coming, I just didn't know he was coming," she called back down._

"_That's the definition of a surprise. Don't forget to look nice!" Carmen knew Lena was beautiful no matter what, but she also understood Lena might not understand that she might want to look nice for this occasion._

_Paul looked awkward, standing in Lena's semiformal house. Carmen bounced over to him. She couldn't hold her excitement in. "I'm so excited Paul! I'm sure she'll say yes. You did talk to her dad, didn't you?"_

_Paul nodded. "Yes."_

_Carmen rolled her eyes. "Are you nervous?"_

_He looked at her again, blinked. "Yes."_

_She laughed. "Don't be. Lena loves you, she told me so last night. It's absolutely crazy! I am so happy for you guys!" She turned and faced the stairs. "LENA!" she bellowed. It was fun to be the loud one sometimes. _

_She came down the stairs, looking so sweet and shining that Carmen had to keep the jealousy off her face. _

_Lena_ _had seen Paul there and her heart had done that usual little flip-flop. She had then looked back at Carmen, who was smiling like crazy. "Carma, I'm so surprised," she whispered to her. _

_Carmen smiled, a big fat smile that stretched all over her face. "You're going to have a lot of surprises tonight."_

_Then Lena went to Paul. They smiled. She didn't feel the need to say anything clever, be entertaining. "Hi."_

_She liked his simplicity. "Hi."_

_They went to the car. He took her to dinner. It was a small quiet restaurant by a river. The table had roses on it._

_He had a job, at a brokerage firm here in Washington. He seemed nervous, which was entirely unusual. He told her about Krista. He said how he enjoyed his time with Carmen so much._

_Lena was content to sit and soak in his words, to let them rush over her. She sensed he was trying to tell her something important. Then he took her outside, even though it was chilly. He held her hand. She kissed his cheek. He brushed her hair behind her ear._

_And then he was on one knee, saying words that she didn't hear. She was distracted. He was presenting her with a glittering shard of light._

"_Yes," she felt herself say._


	3. Chapter 3

Lena went to Church with her grandmother. She went to Church with her family, and so she understood what was going on in the ceremony even in Greek. Her grandmother translated the Homily for her, but otherwise it was completely uneventful.

The old women had gathered around Lena as they entered, pinching her cheeks and touching her hair, telling her how pretty she was. Lena had felt invaded by the attention.

The ceremony lasted about an hour, and hen everyone started to get up. Lena stiffly stretched, and that was when she saw him.

He was smiling at someone. It wasn't forced, but it wasn't genuine either. It wasn't the smile of dizzy excitement that she remembered.

She saw the golden bundle in his arms. The boy was sleeping.

Lena wanted to weep. She wanted to run. She wanted to go to him. She wanted to hold the baby.

Her grandmother saw what she was looking at and pinched Lena's arm. "We will talk later," she whispered to her.

Other people had noticed too. But Kostos hadn't. He wasn't looking at her at all. Shouldn't he have noticed her presence? Felt her somehow?

She looked away. She had to. Something that she had put up on a shelf in her mind was falling down, crashing to the ground. She could feel the shocks running through her system.

She touched the ring on her finger, the sweet little memento that had led her here. Bridget was so happy and successful, and Carmen was working as an intern at Fleming and Worthing, and Tibby was actually making movies and Lena was Lena.

She went back with her grandmother to the house. She grabbed her sketch pad and her paints. She needed that calm so badly-needed _something_ so very badly-she almost wanted to run to the Grove. That place that had become hers, for so brief a moment.

She wished Bridget was here. Bridget was decisive. She could swish her hair and boys would come calling to her and she would relish in the attention. When boys paid attention to Lena she got scared. Paul was so very wonderful. They didn't even have to talk. Silence is golden. She understood all of this.

Out of sight of the houses she trotted up the path. The heat was slamming down on her. She dashed for the shade of the olive trees.

She almost started to cry.

Because then he showed up. He was there. In the Grove.

And then something even more horrible happened. She didn't say anything. True, she could feel her mouth opening and her breath coming in and out of her chest but no words came.

A strangled cry, almost a sob, wrenched itself out of her throat. Lena was horrified-it had come out awfully different than the "hey" she had intended.

He looked at her. She looked at him. She took in his darker skin, more lined. He was a little fatter too. But his hands were as strong as ever, and he had those eyes she had so missed and his full mouth. She could see the hair on his chest from the collar of his shirt. He wore the same clothes as before, but they looked more worn in and less deliberate.

Kostos was taking in Lena. It was his fantasy come true. His grandmother had kicked him out of the shop that morning, telling him to take a day off. Mariana was working at the restaurant, and little Alex was being cared for by his grandmother, so he had decided to go swimming. And there she was. She was wearing a white dress, one that was classic and understated and getting dirty from where she was sitting under the tree. He saw the sketchbook. Her hair was longer and lighter, but he didn't care. Her eyes were as piercing green as always, and she was giving him a smile that he wanted to keep on her lips forever.

"Lena?" he asked. He had to be sure. It couldn't all be a fantasy, could it?

"You're real," she whispered. "I saw you at Church. I've been here three days already. I have missed you for so long!" She stopped, almost like she was catching herself.

She looked down. He walked over to her, knelt beside her, and touched her face. "You're so real."

She stood then. Maybe her plea to Bridget had finally registered in the cosmos, but that same prayer to Bridget she had whispered was coming back to her.

She took off her dress. And her bra. And her underwear. And she stepped into the pool.

It was cool and sweet under the water. She cooled her burning cheeks and tried not to think about what she had done, or whether it would backfire on her. Oh please let it not backfire, she hoped.

He took off his shirt and pants but left his boxers on. And then he dove in with a mighty splash.

"Kostos!" she cried, shaking the water out of her eyes. "You got water in my eyes!" she pouted in front of him. For some reason, this seemed to break the ice. He smiled a real smile this time. It felt so wonderfully _familiar_. She remembered wanting to swim with him in her backyard, but being a bit distracted at the time.

He grinned. "Desperately sorry, Lena. Can I repay you somehow?" There was a glint in his eye. She grinned back.

"I'm done with college now," she informed him, proudly.

"You're an official artist, then?" he replied. She smiled and nodded. "Still blacksmithing?"

"Of course. And I'm working with a friend of mine in the fishing business. You can get quite a haul around these parts. Financially everything is pretty much working out. I worry about my grandfather, though."

"Is he still working?" she was shocked; he had seemed so frail the last time she was here.

"He has a hard time saying no. So of course my grandmother worries too much, and I worry, and he is just determined to go and get his anvil and hammer and bang away at something for a couple of hours. And then he comes in and feels productive. I think it's good for him."

It was like no time had passed. They fell into the old speech patterns they had always had. But in the old days he would have been touching her, and they would never have skirted around the things they dare not mention. He obviously would not bring up Mariana, and by unspoken agreement she would not mention other boys. At least, she assumed that was the way it was going to work.

"You're going to miss him when he's gone," she said. But she wasn't saying that at all. She was saying that she missed him when he left. Missed him so much that the ache had never stopped, and all of Paul's silences hadn't managed to fill it. She was saying she had to know if he could fix the brokenness in her or not.

"Maybe you would paint him for me. I know my grandmother would be terribly happy if you did, Lena. She always liked you. The first time I met you she was nudging me in the ribs, telling me to go ask you out. You can see how well that turned out." Once again he grinned. "Race you from one end to the other," he challenged her.

It was a small pool, which was all for the better considering what a weak swimmer Lena was. And so they kept reforming the rules until she could win. They never touched, but they swam and they laughed and they talked.

It was getting cool, they realized. Lena started to shiver, and Kostos suggested they get dressed. She told him to close his eyes while she got out of the pool and he did. She looked away when he climbed out.

Her clothes were hot, and the remaining sunlight dried her quickly. He said he would talk to his grandmother about the portrait, and she said she would let her grandmother know about it.

And she walked away feeling both desperately elated and desperately sad.


	4. Chapter 4

Kostos' grandparents were visiting Valia. She and Kostos' grandmother (Eleni? Eva? Something with an E in it), were talking in speedy Greek while Mr. Kostos (name unknown) was gazing out the window. She assumed they were talking in part about her, judging by the way Valia kept gesturing at her, but had no idea was being said.

It was a frightful side effect of not knowing the language of the place she was in that she was often bored and lost. Effie and her Grandfather had filled the emptiness, but now they were gone. Which left her plenty of time to think. And things kept jumping to forefront of her mind, things she would rather have forgotten.

She tried not to look down. It was on her mind all the time. She should have just stopped wearing it, but for some reason she didn't.

Kostos had cheated on her. That seemed to be a developing pattern in her relationships.

"_Lena!_ _I'm so excited for you!" Everyone crowded around her, examining the ring (it was a single diamond, square cut, on a silver band) and asking how it had all come about. The ordinariness of it seemed to destroy the beauty that Lena had felt. They wanted a story that was exciting and thrilling. Going to dinner and getting a proposal were not._

_But the thing about Paul was that he knew she didn't want fireworks. He knew that she wanted a simple quiet engagement, and a simple quiet life. Lena felt joy in such a different way, in such a tentative way, that sometimes she wondered if experiencing things the way Bee did would kill her._

_Even Effie had embraced her, and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm happy for you, Lena," she had said softly. For the two of them the past years had been a slow drift apart, but in that moment she felt so close to her sister. She grabbed Effie's hand and gave it a small squeeze._

_That had been a wonderful night. All her friends had come over, and then their parents, in what had turned into a giant impromptu party. _

_The next day Lena's face felt odd. And then she realized her face was sore from smiling._

Valia was talking to her. "You will paint Mr. Kostos. A nice portrait. One they can hang for company and such. You will, Lena?"

So _that _was what the conversation was about. "Of course. No problem."

Valia relayed that message for her.

The grandparents stayed for lunch, a lengthy affair that left Lena entirely excluded from the conversation. She wondered why Kostos had not come. Maybe he was too busy?

Eating meant that the sun was glinting off the ring on her finger.

Maybe she should pawn it. Maybe she should keep it. He hadn't asked for it back. She hadn't told him she was leaving. Technically, the engagement was still on. She wondered if he knew that she had left. She wondered if he would be angry that she had let another boy see her naked. And it had been a boy who had touched her before. Kissed her before. Said he loved her once before, and then left her.

Tears gathered at the back of her eyes. The sun was bright in the little house. Valia and the other grandmother (great-grandmother now, she thought sourly), were obviously thick as thieves. She looked up at Mr. Kostos. He was watching her with bright, sad eyes. She tried to offer him a weak smile.

Instead he reached his sun-browned hand across the bright blue tablecloth and held Lena's hand for a moment. Just a moment, then it was gone.

The moment of connection reverberated in Lena. She missed connecting. Missed Paul. Missed Carmen. But she would not think about that.

She would never think about what Carmen had done.


	5. The Reason

Lena wrapped her arms around herself. She was wearing her most modest clothes. I pretty white blouse with a bright blue skirt. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she had gone with minimal makeup. For some reason this whole getup had taken her almost two hours.

"LENA!" her grandmother bellowed. "You vill be late! My friends are vaiting for you!"

Lena spritzed on some perfume (Chanel No. 5, her favorite) and grabbed her things. She ran down the stairs and found her grandmother handing her the painting kit she had ready, shoving her shoes at her, and shoving her out the door.

Guys I am SO sorry about the chapter mixup. I actually wrote this chapter a long time ago, and hace since revised it. I hope you like it. Please review!


End file.
